RSVP Now For Your $750 Million Tickets to the Moon

Humans will go back to the moon after all, it seems. All it took was a few ex-NASA bigwigs with a dream in their eyes, the backing of a few key space industry players, a properly astronomical price tag, and, somehow, Newt Gingrich.

Officially announced today, the project is called Golden Spike, named for the spike that joined the two halves of the transcontinental railroad in 1869. For a total fee of about $1.5 billion (just $750 million per seat!) the company says it will carry two passengers to the moon and back.

The project's head is Alan Stern, former NASA science administrator (and occasional critic of its plans). Apollo flight director Gerry Griffin is the chairman of the board. For good measure, the board of advisers includes the former House Speaker Gingrich, who infamously advocated an American lunar base during his run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Golden Spike's pitch is, essentially: We've done this before (the last humans to walk on the moon did so 40 years ago this month), so we can do it again. The mission would use existing rockets and capsules to get its high-paying passengers to the moon, needing to build only the spacesuits and a lunar lander to take the travelers to the moon's surface. Stern's organization also has the blessing of NASA, which has shifted away from its own goal of putting people back on the lunar surface. In an official statement the agency praised Golden Spike as a part of the robust commercial space industry President Obama hoped would flower.

Yes, a few super-rich people could take up Golden Spike on the offer to pay nearly a billion dollars per ticket from the Earth to the moon and back. The company's pitch, however, appears aimed more at nations than individuals. Stern told Wired that countries will pay to get their scientific experiments into space and to join the club of lunar nations.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/rsvp-now-for-your-750-million-ticket-to-the-moon-14825758?src=rss

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